


AO3 Census: Demographics

by centreoftheselights



Series: AO3 Census 2013 [3]
Category: No Fandom
Genre: Age in Fandom, Archived From Tumblr, Archived From centrumlumina Tumblr, Ethnicity in Fandom, Fan Studies, Fandom Statistics, Gender in Fandom, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, Race in Fandom, Sexuality in Fandom, demographics, survey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2013-10-02
Packaged: 2019-09-18 04:40:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16988199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/centreoftheselights/pseuds/centreoftheselights
Summary: This is part of the AO3 Census project, a survey that asked over 10,000 AO3 users about their demographics and habits.An overview of the 'Demographics' section of the survey.





	1. Age

N.B. The above percentages refer to % of total responses to this question, and sum to 100%.

**Question**

This question was phrased as ‘How old are you?’ There were no additional instructions. Users could select one option from the given list. **  
**

**Responses**

The responses were selected with the following frequencies:

  * **15 or younger** \- 357 respondents. 3.6%
  * **16 - 18** \- 1588 respondents. 15.9%
  * **19 - 21** \- 2302 respondents. 23.0%
  * **22 - 24** \- 1949 respondents. 19.5%
  * **25 - 29** \- 1878 respondents. 18.8%
  * **30 - 34** \- 933 respondents. 9.3%
  * **35 - 39** \- 404 respondents. 4.0%
  * **40 - 49** \- 440 respondents. 4.4%
  * **50 or older** \- 140 respondents. 1.4%



14 respondents (0.1%) did not respond to this question.

In order to calculate the distribution of each result, the values for each group were approximated as the point midway between the lowest value for that group and the lowest value for the one above it, i.e. 17.5 for 16-18, 20.5 for 19-21 etc. The estimated values for the first and last groups were 12 and 60 respectively.

By this method, the mean age of the respondents who answered this question was **25.1 years old** , and age had a standard deviation of **8.2 years**. The median age was in the range **22-24 years**.


	2. Gender

N.B. The above percentages refer to % of total responses to this question, and sum to 100%. Percentages shown below refer to the % of total survey participants unless otherwise specified.

**Question**

This question was phrased as ‘What gender(s) do you identify as?“ and was accompanied by the instructions "Check all which apply.”

**Responses**

The responses were selected with the following frequencies:

  * **Male** \- 417 respondents. 4.2%
  * **Female** \- 9039 respondents. 90.3%
  * **Transgender** \- 227 respondents. 2.3%
  * **Androgynous** \- 242 respondents. 2.4%
  * **Agender** \- 232 respondents. 2.3%
  * **Genderqueer** \- 727 respondents. 7.3%
  * **Neutrois** \- 62 respondents. 0.6%
  * **Trans** * - 191 respondents. 1.9%
  * **Other: Textbox** \- 114 respondents. 1.1%



21 respondents (0.2%) did not respond to this question.

A total of 11251 boxes were checked, or an average of 1.13 per response. 9088 respondents (91% of those who replied) checked only one box. The most boxes checked by a single individual was 8.

ETA: As discussed [here](http://centrumlumina.tumblr.com/post/62827673360/gender), 896 respondents selected multiple boxes, accounting for a total of 2163 responses. Of those 896 people:

  * 229 selected Male (25.6%)
  * 538 selected Female (60.0%)
  * 203 selected Transgender (22.7%)
  * 207 selected Androgynous (23.1%)
  * 160 selected Agender (17.9%)
  * 508 selected Genderqueer (56.7%)
  * 52 selected Neutrois (5.8%)
  * 178 selected Trans* (19.9%)
  * 88 selected Other (9.8%)



**Other**

Of the 114 respondents who chose to enter text in the 'Other’ box, there were some noticeable trends. Below is a list of the ideas and/or words which appeared in some variation in 5 or more of the entered responses:

  * Genderfluid (36 responses)
  * Non-binary (12 responses)
  * Bigender (10 responses)
  * Do not have a gender identity (8 responses)
  * Questioning/uncertain of gender identity (8 responses)
  * Transsexual/MTF/FTM (5 responses)



**Criticism & Feedback**

Several respondents thanked me for allowing for options outside of the male/female binary. The ability to choose multiple identites and the ability to enter their own text were often cited as appreciated features.

However, some respondents felt that the inclusion of the “transgender” option was ill-informed, especially as there was no corresponding option for “cisgender”. 3 respondents used the Other box to specify their cisgender status. A couple more felt that “transgender” was too broad a term, and suggested that separate options for FTM and MTF would have been more inclusive.

I apologise to anyone who felt this question did not allow them to fully describe their gender identity (or lack of one) in a way they were comfortable with.


	3. Sexuality

N.B. The above percentages refer to % of total responses to this question, and sum to 100%. Percentages shown below refer to the % of total survey participants unless otherwise specified.

**Question**

This question was phrased as “What sexuality(s) do you identify as?” It was initially accompanied by the instructions “Check all which apply.”

After approximately 4,000 responses, an additional instruction was added reading “If you feel your romantic orientation is an important part of your sexuality, please enter it in ‘Other’.”

**Responses**

The responses were selected with the following frequencies:

  * **Heterosexual** \- 3803 respondents. 38.0%
  * **Homosexual** \- 668 respondents. 6.7%
  * **Bisexual** \- 3063 respondents. 30.6%
  * **Pansexual** \- 1592 respondents. 15.9%
  * **Asexual** \- 1138 respondents. 11.4%
  * **Demisexual** \- 758 respondents. 7.6%
  * **Grey-asexual** \- 607 respondents. 6.1%
  * **Queer** \- 1161 respondents. 11.6%
  * **Other: Textbox** \- 481 respondents. 4.8%



N.B. The numbers here differ slightly to those on the diagram for two reasons. Firstly, during processing some values entered in Other which matched one of the preset options may have been read as that option. Secondly, there is an unexplained discrepancy of approximately 60 Other respondents, which I believe is due to issues with the Google form (used to generate the diagram) processing punctuation entered in the textbox.

76 respondents (0.8%) did not respond to this question.

The most boxes checked by a single individual was 6. A total of 13271 boxes were checked, or an average of 1.34 per response. 7393 respondents (74.5% of those who replied) checked only one box.

2536 respondents selected multiple boxes, accounting for a total of 5878 responses. Of those 2536 people:

  * 737 selected Heterosexual (29.1%)
  * 257 selected Homosexual (10.1%)
  * 1261 selected Bisexual (49.7%)
  * 840 selected Pansexual (33.1%)
  * 558 selected Asexual (22.0%)
  * 602 selected Demisexual (23.7%)
  * 469 selected Grey-asexual (18.5%)
  * 826 selected Queer (32.6%)
  * 328 selected Other (12.9%)



**Other**

After some initial confusion (see Criticism & Feedback), respondents wishing to specify romantic orientation were asked to do so via Other. 228 respondents did so, with the following frequencies:

  * Panromantic (82 responses)
  * Biromantic (54 responses)
  * Aromantic (34 responses)
  * Homoromantic (29 responses)
  * Heteroromantic (26 responses)
  * Demiromantic (4 responses)
  * Grey-aromantic/greyromantic (4 responses)



The following themes/words were frequently used, appearing 10 or more times in the 481 responses entered:

  * Questioning/Uncertain/Don’t know (98 responses)
  * Do not identify with a sexuality (26 responses)
  * Heteroflexible (16 responses)
  * Lesbian (15 responses)
  * Bi-curious (11 responses)
  * Fluid (10 responses)



**Criticism & Feedback**

As with the gender question, several respondents expressed gratefulness for the range of options available and the flexibility of the question design in allowing them to express their sexuality.

However, I received some criticism for the lack of clarity regarding romantic orientation. No romantic orientation question was provided as I anticipated low response rates, and wished to minimise survey length. After several people contacted me asking how best to specify a romantic orientation - the main options suggested being through selecting the relevant sexuality, or through the textbox - I added a note to clarify the preferred format.

There was also a single suggestion that Bisexuality and Pansexuality should have been combined to a single option. However, the differing response rates for the separate options suggest that most users do not see them as synonymous, so I stand by the decision to separate them.


	4. Gender, Sexual or Romantic Minority

N.B. The above percentages refer to % of total responses to this question, and sum to 100%. Percentages shown below refer to the % of total survey participants unless otherwise specified.

**Question**

This question was phrased as ‘Do you identify as belonging to a gender, sexual or romantic minority?’ and was accompanied by the note 'i.e. LGBTQ+’

**Responses**

The responses were selected with the following frequencies:

  * **Yes** -5376 respondents. 53.7%
  * **No** \- 4483 respondents. 44.8%



146 respondents (1.5%) did not respond to this question.

Among the 5376 people who selected Yes, 3196 (59.4%) selected exactly one answer for both Gender and Sexuality. 23 (0.4%) skipped one or both of those questions.

Among the 4483 people who selected No, 3708 (82.7%) selected exactly one answer for both Gender and Sexuality. 39 (0.9%) skipped one or both of those questions.


	5. Ethnicity

N.B. The above percentages refer to % of total responses to this question, and sum to 100%. Percentages shown below refer to the % of total survey participants unless otherwise specified.

**Question**

The question was phrased as “What ethnicity(s) do you identify as?” and was accompanied by the instruction “Check all which apply.”

**Responses**

The responses were selected with the following frequencies:

  * **White** \- 8380 respondents. 83.8%
  * **Black** \- 239 respondents. 2.4%
  * **Asian** \- 805 respondents. 8.0%
  * **Hispanic/Latino/Latina** \- 571 respondents. 5.7%
  * **Native American** \- 148 respondents. 1.5%
  * **Pacific Islander** \- 57 respondents. 0.6%
  * **Mixed/Multiple** \- 551 respondents. 5.5%
  * **Other: Textbox** \- 228 respondents. 2.3%



51 respondents (0.5%) did not respond to this question.

The most boxes checked by a single individual was 6. A total of 10979 boxes were checked, or an average of 1.10 per response. 9205 respondents (92.5% of those who replied) checked only one box.

749 respondents selected multiple boxes, accounting for a total of 1774 responses. Of those 749 people:

  * 607 selected White (81.0%)
  * 91 selected Black (12.1%)
  * 197 selected Asian (26.3%)
  * 261 selected Hispanic/Latino/Latina (34.8%)
  * 124 selected Native American (16.6%)
  * 45 selected Pacific Islander (6.0%)
  * 324 selected Mixed/Multiple (43.3%)
  * 125 selected Other (16.7%)



**Other**

The following words/phrases appeared more than 5 times in the write-in responses:

  * Reference to a particular country/nation state (83 responses)
  * Jewish (42 responses)
  * Indian (25 responses)
  * Middle Eastern (22 responses)
  * European (18 responses)
  * South Asian (14 responses)
  * Arab (12 responses)
  * Do not identify as any ethnicity (11 responses)
  * Chinese (7 responses)



N.B. Broad terms such as Middle Eastern, European, South Asian etc. do not include those who specified a particular country within that region unless they also used the phrase shown here.

**Criticism & Feedback**

The phrasing of this question was based mainly on the [UK census](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_ethnicity_in_the_United_Kingdom) definition of ethnicity, although the responses were expanded to include the [terms used in the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States) for the classification of race and ethnicity. In spite of this, 3 respondents criticised this concept of ethnicity as being “too American”.

Many people seemed to feel the categories were too broad to be classed as “ethnicities” and should have been more specific and/or been referred to as “races”.


End file.
